Covered California bus tour stops in Petaluma (w/video)

California launched a $95 million campaign Monday to get every resident signed up for health insurance as the state embarks upon its second year under President Barack Obama’s health care law.

The head of the state’s health insurance exchange, Covered California, stopped in Petaluma on Monday during a whirlwind statewide bus tour to promote open enrollment, which begins Saturday and ends Feb. 15.

Over the next three months, Californians can purchase health coverage, often at subsidized rates, regardless of any pre-existing medical conditions. Last year, 1.2 million people signed up during the six-month open enrollment period. This year, Covered California expects 1.7 million people to obtain coverage under the federal Affordable Care Act, even though the enrollment period has been cut in half.

“We have three short months to make history,” Peter Lee, executive director of Covered California, said Monday during a brief appearance at the Petaluma Health Center.

Like last year, computer glitches are snarling the enrollment process.

Everyone who enrolled this year must renew their Covered California plan for 2015, a process that started last month and was immediately crippled by a computer problem.

Rhonda Patton, a certified agent in Petaluma, said the system for renewals crashed Oct. 13 and was not restored until last week. On Monday, Patton said that straight renewals were working, but the system was still out of order for policyholders reporting a change in circumstances, such as the number of people insured or the family income.

For those people, Patton said she was advised on Monday to try again Wednesday, following the Veterans Day holiday Tuesday.

Amy Palmer, a spokeswoman for Covered California, said that a “significant number of people” attempting to renew policies encountered an error that prevented them from renewing. That problem was fixed last week, she said. The fix for people making changes in their policies was scheduled to be made Monday night and be effective Wednesday.

“This is the first time Covered California has done renewals,” Palmer said. “We have learned some things along the way.”

When the Affordable Care Act made its debut in fall 2013, the federal government’s website, HealthCare.gov, suffered a meltdown so bad the president told an Iowa television station that it had “way more glitches than I think are acceptable.”

Nonetheless, President Obama said in April that 8 million people had signed up for insurance, a number that shrank to 7.1 million because some people failed to pay their share of premiums or were found ineligible on account of immigration and citizenship issues, the New York Times reported Monday.

The Department of Health and Human Services estimated that enrollment, including renewals and new customers, would total 10 million to 11 million by the end of this year’s open enrollment period. However, it projected as few as 9 million people will remain on the rolls by the end of 2015 - far below the Congressional Budget Office’s estimate that 13 million would be enrolled next year, with the total rising to 24 million in 2016.

Covered California, the state agency that oversees the marketplace for individual and family health insurance plans, is rolling out a $95 million community outreach campaign to encourage Californians to sign up for health coverage. It includes the bus tour, which will carry officials to 21 cities in nine days, and multilingual television ads running in every major market across the state.

Covered California has more than doubled the number of service center representatives - state employees and contractors - to help consumers enroll, shorten wait times and reduce the reliance on bilingual interpreters. The agency has also added more than 200 storefront locations open on evenings and weekends to help consumers.

It also redesigned its website in an attempt to make it easier for consumers to explore their options, which range from private insurers to Medi-Cal, which offers low-cost or free coverage to low-income residents.

Individuals who make $45,960 or less a year and families of four that make $94,200 or less may qualify for financial assistance. More than 80 percent of the consumers who purchased insurance through Covered California last year received subsidies that cut their monthly premiums by an average of $350, Lee said.

Last year, 1.2 million people signed up for private insurance through Covered California and an additional 2 million received coverage through the expanded Medi-Cal program. As a result, the number of uninsured Californians was cut in half, from 22 percent to 11 percent of those eligible for insurance, Lee said, calling it the “largest reduction in the nation.”

There are still 3.2 million uninsured residents eligible for Covered California or Medi-Cal coverage, including 110,000 in Sonoma, Marin, Napa and Solano counties, he said.

Pedro Toledo, acting CEO of the Petaluma Health Center, said that includes about 20,000 people eligible for Medi-Cal and 10,000 eligible for Covered California policies in Sonoma County.

Undocumented residents are not eligible for either program.

Residents can buy health insurance for 2015 either online, at health facilities in Sonoma County or from a certified insurance agent without paying a fee. For information online, go to CoveredCA.com. Click on “Find help near you” for lists of certified enrollment counselors at local health clinics, certified insurance agents and county human services departments.

You can reach Staff Writer Guy Kovner at 521-5457 or guy.kovner@pressdemocrat.com.